Mass Effect: Andromeda Beginner’s Guide – How to Get Started Right

After five years of waiting, Mass Effect: Andromeda is finally here. Not for everyone yet, but EA and Origin Access members can jump into the game for about ten hours, so it seems like the right time to get out a Mass Effect: Andromeda beginner’s guide. The goal of this guide is to help you figure out how to get started right with this new game. Taking place in the Andromeda galaxy, far from all the things you’ve come to expect from this series, it’s more important now than ever that you stay calm and follow these beginner tips for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Before we get totally into the weeds with this, just know that we’ll keep this totally spoiler free. The game has a few important plot moments very early in the game, but we will still avoid even these, so don’t worry too much about reading on. This guide will also be focusing on the single player campaign, which is locked during the early access period to just the first couple of missions. Multiplayer is wide open though, aside from the overall time limit for the demo, so we’ve prepped a different guide for multiplayer. Now, onto the Mass Effect: Andromeda Beginner’s Guide.

Stay Calm, Take it Slow

Mass Effect: Andromeda hits you quickly with new elements of the universe and the core gameplay. More than any game since the very first one in the series, Andromeda is chock full of new things to worry about, tinker with, and figure out. It’s important to stay calm, and take it slow. Don’t rush through the campaign, don’t skip over the tutorials, read everything you can, talk to everyone that you can, take in everything that you can. You want to come out of the early parts of the game feeling very comfortable with the new systems that are laid out before you, and with an understanding of what is going on in the universe and the story. If you rush through it you’ll get lost and it will take even longer to get your bearings once again.

Talk to Everyone

Despite all the new stuff, and the new setting, this is still very much a Mass Effect game. That means you need to talk to everyone that you can. Now, the game does seem to limit your conversation options, making some NPCs just stand around without any intractability. This will make this easier though, as you know that if someone pops up with the prompt for dialogue it means that they likely have something important to say. Not always, but it’s a safe bet that they’ll either have a mission, have a part in a mission, or just offer some interesting or fun dialogue to chew through.

This is especially true of your crew on the Tempest. Once you move past the very first couple of missions you will have a decently sized crew of humans and aliens. You’ll want to talk to all of them between every single mission, if you want to get all the content you can out of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Romance Everyone

Mass Effect is all about romance. Well, it’s actually about killing a bunch of evil aliens and saving the universe. But in a more real sense, it’s all about the love. Ever since the first game introduced romancing as an option it has become a bigger and bigger part of the series. Mass Effect: Andromeda takes it to a new level. You won’t get into this for a little while, and it’s always more of a journey than it is a quick and easy destination, but you will want to romance someone on your crew. The best way to do this is to go ahead and start romancing everyone that you have even a passing interest in, giving you the option of deciding later who you actually want to take to bed. This may cause some story disconnect for you, as your Ryder is flirting with everyone on two legs, but the alternative is losing out on choices later in the game.

Don’t Get Stuck on the Simple Stuff

In my time with Mass Effect: Andromeda it’s been surprising to see that the really tough stuff has been some of the smallest. With that in mind we went ahead and put together some small, short guides on things that might trip you up. These include how to melee and how to change weapons. These seem simple, and there were tutorial prompts for them, but they sometimes come too late or disappear before you truly take in the info. Just refer to the first tip in this Mass Effect: Andromeda Beginner’s Guide; stay calm and go slow, and you’ll get it figured out. If not then check out those guides or leave us a comment here and we’ll help out.

Don’t Worry too Much About Your Class/Abilities

Mass Effect: Andromeda, more than any other game in the series, lets you freely choose a lot of things about your character. This is even true after you choose a starting class and abilities. Want to play as a soldier, but also want some biotic abilities? Easy, just choose one of the two and then put experience points into the abilities that you want later on. Classes are almost non-existent here in a lot of ways, with characters able to use any weapon and train in any ability. Don’t stress at the beginning, and just make a character that you like, then worry about everything else later on.

Have Fun

It’s been five years since Mass Effect 3 and almost ten years since the release of the original Mass Effect. It’s been so long since players could dive into this universe, especially with so much new stuff to discover. Take your time and just have some fun with it. If this is your first Mass Effect experience then you’ll want to remember it. If you’re a longtime veteran then you know how special these games can be. Mass Effect: Andromeda will be a starting point for more to come, so have fun with it and be sure to remember it all.